It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

ifonlyitwaseasier

looks like hubby and i will be £113 better off, so thats our 1st anniversary treat paid for (tickets to les mis (paper) and dinner!)

so i'm going to have to save harder, much as hubby is against me getting a second job, i think i need to. i know he does O/T but i can't expect him to sacrifice his free time so that i don't have to. at least if i do it'll mean i'll spend less (boo hiss!) and be able to pay more off our debts (yay yippee!)

D&DD

I used this one for DS3's birthday cake and judging by the responses I got from school they all loved it!
http://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipe_details.html?ri=85&isd=t

I left out the almonds and used all sultanas instead of mixed fruit and peel so it gave a lovely moist and quite light cake

Delias ones are easily converted too by just using GF flour

I must get a crack on and get ours made I'm worse than behind this year and DS2's birthday is on Boxing Day which doesn't help either!

Yategirl

brilliant! thank you so much!

sparrer

mummysaver wrote: »

Anyway, pickled onions are simple, just get your little pickling onions or shallots, greengrocers are often your best bet for the best prices, then top, tail and peel, soak in very salty water overnight, think sea salty! Beware, your kitchen will stink in the morning! So open windows and rinse the onions thoroughly. Put into sterilised jars with malt vinegar and mustard seeds and chillis, or you can use white vinegar and pickling spices or pickling vinegar (usually sold in big jars). Screw on lid, label and leave for min of 4 weeks, then enjoy!

I also did some cheats ones, just picked up the value pickled onions from Asda, added chilli and mustard seeds!

If you want to put them in kilner type jars, then Ikea sell them for £1 for 500g jar I think, and they make great pressies.

This reminded me of when I was a manager in sheltered housing...we had a lovely man who, although blind, did lots of cooking and always pickled onions for Christmas.

One year he found one of his jars still had some from the previous season so he flushed them down the loo :eek: . Next morning I had a call from the lady in the flat above his 'Come quickly please, I've just flushed my toilet and there are brown things flying all over my bathroom!' As you can imagine (though I'm sure you'd rather not ) I was dreading what I'd find, but yes, you guessed it....:rotfl:

They both lived on the story for months!

JoolzS

blackcoffee wrote: »

My car cost £1,000 to service this summer, and dh just spent £1200 keeping his on he road for another 12 months !!! ARGH!!!!! my gear box is on borrowed time !!

This made me :eek:. £1,000 is more than I paid to buy my car, get it through an MOT two months later, tax it, and insure it. What sort of car costs £1,000 to service???

Julie

[Deleted User]

I am so spitting mad at the debt we in the uk have been dragged into. 2 years ago even I could see what was happening and I started accumulating food and savings, prior to that I got rid of any loans when my dh had to go on reduced income because of future winding down re retirement and changing position in the company. Hey, I cut my cloth accordingly and have been keeping comfortably afloat when I could have borrowed (like the uk) and sunk

The government have all sorts of data at their disposal and they must have know what was coming 6-8 years ago. So where was the prudence in their housekeeping? It is all about power and staying in power so bring in the smoke and mirrors. Gold was sold at a pittance and there is NOTHING in the uk safety net of a money pot. Bliar and his war have drained us too

I got an e mail from smile banking today saying that the rate on current accounts will now be 0.28%. So now I am thinking `what is the point in being frugal` except it is my own self-respect. The value of cash is still going down like a stone and the only thing that is gaining in value is my full storecupboard and that is down to real prudence

catznine

I agree Kittie and it just makes us more determined to pay the mortgage down, where it will do more good than in a savings account! Only problem is now we may have to help dd out when her redundancy comes through! Tony Blair is a rude word around here!:mad:

Pooky

Well, we're coping, but only just. Our car died last month and we had to replace it - DH car shares for work and only now drives one week in 3 which is fab for our fuel consumption. We only ever buy run-a-rounds but we still had to shove it on a credit card as we just didn't have anything spare. I've got all the utilities etc down as low as we can, the heating is on for an hour in the mornings, then comes on at 3pm so it's warm when the kids come in from school....off agian at 5pm as the heat from cooking warms the house enough and then it's blankets/snuggle on the sofa time. The heating's been on all day though for the past 3 days as we've all got this fluey virus and we just can't get warm.

I've yet to play with the budget figures to see how they effect us but I doubt they'll have any effect.

We had a 3 hour power cut last night which was great - 3 hours less power to pay - whoohoo!

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

kittie wrote: »

I am so spitting mad at the debt we in the uk have been dragged into.

I know what you mean and I feel exactly the same.I also feel that things are going to get much,much worse in the future.Saying "the lunatics have taken over the asylum" seems very apt in the circumstances.I think this government is realy clutching at straws and just trying to pacify us all in the short term.I also think we're in too deep for any of the things in the budget(and too late in the procedings anyway)for anything to help us.
By the calculator we'll be £131 better off,big deal.In years to come we're going to be much more worse off.
The VAT decrease means nothing unless you've got money to spend.In our own case and a lot of other people I know off who rely on yearly bonuses to make up salaries we can't spend as this year we just did'nt get bonuses as the companies were'nt paying any out to anyone.It was a case of bonuses or jobs.That means a loss of about 8k in our case I/3rd of our income.There's no way we can make that up.Still at least my OH has his job a lot in the same company lost theirs.
I can honestly say I fear for the future.

Cinny91

I'm really working at my savings at the moment, thankfully the family business is going from strength to strength at the moment so I'm not worried too much about that. But if I can get a good bit of money behind me I can help my parents out with household bills if it comes to that.

Baking this afternoon, brownies, buns, cake slices and twinks oaties. Since I've started doing batch baking weekly I've noticed our 'junk cupboard' has gone down completely.